(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document management device that manages electronic documents and provides electronic documents requested by a user.
(ii) Description of the Related Art
Techniques for providing a user with data have been disclosed. According to one of the techniques, the user receives electronic mail including reference information necessary for accessing available files and, on the basis of the reference information included in the electronic mail, obtains a desired file from a file server.
The technique disclosed above allows the file server to manage which user has requested a file on the basis of reference information. Even if reference information on the same file is provided to multiple users, the file server can manage which users have received the reference information. However, because reference information is information necessary for accessing a file, the reference information on a given file located in a given area is always the same. Therefore, if a user distributes provided reference information to another user and the other user requests to obtain the file on the basis of the distributed reference information, the file server cannot identify which user originally received the reference information.